


Safe

by afteriwake



Series: All's Fair [24]
Category: CSI: NY
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Black Eye, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hugs, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Lindsay Monroe Needs a Hug, Making Up, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Relationship, Protective Danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 20:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13279494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: He's still a safe place.





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thiscanbegin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiscanbegin/gifts).



> While the series mainly focuses on Flack/Angell, I indulged in the occasional Danny/Lindsay fic, because I like the ship when it's not even remotely related to canon. In other words, if I engineer everything, I can deal with them. For **thiscanbegin** , who damn near exploded with joy when I told her I was writing this years ago.

The knock at his door was unexpected. He'd settled in to watch the game, yet another one on his own since Flack was consumed with the demands of a newborn baby, and while he'd ordered a pizza he'd just done it five minutes earlier. If it was the pizza he'd praise that place all over town.

He looked out the eyehole and paused. _She_ was there. She hadn't been there since they amicably ended their relationship because things were getting too...something. Maybe intense, maybe not, but she'd gotten scared and he'd backed away, and the relationship had ended.

He opened the door and took a good look at Lindsay. And after ten seconds his eyes zeroed into the red puffiness under her eye. He knew that look, he'd seen it a lot of times from his boisterous childhood. And suddenly he was irrationally angry.

"Who hit you?" he asked quietly. He had a pretty good idea who, but he wanted some confirmation before he went out to wring the guy's neck.

"Steve," she said quietly.

"I'm gonna kill the bastard," he said quietly as he moved out of the doorway so she could come in.

"Don't. I already told him if he came near me again I'd shoot him." She stepped into the apartment and looked around, taking in the changes, both the obvious and the subtle ones. "You got a new pool table."

He counted in his head silently for a moment as he shut the door. He wanted answers to the questions swimming around in his head, but he knew she would have to wait. "Yeah."

"Why?"

He didn't want to tell her that it was because every time he looked at it he thought of their first time together and it tore him up inside. "It was getting old. The surface was getting worn out."

She nodded. Then she finally looked at him, and he didn't like the expression on her face. She was scared. She was also sad and defeated, but she was _scared._ She would have had to be scared to come over to his place. Even though things had ended well, they were by no means easy between them.

It hadn't helped when he'd met her new boyfriend. He'd disliked him from the first moment he opened up his mouth. He seemed too much like Frankie to him, and everyone knew how _that_ relationship had ended for Stella. He wanted to voice his objections, but then he'd have come off as jealous, and Lindsay seemed happy, so he stayed quiet. But Flack hadn't. It was the fact that not only Flack but Hawkes and Angell felt uneasy about the guy. Flack had been the only one to voice his opinions that Danny knew of. Angell probably had, too, but he didn't know for sure.

"Linds, what happened?" he asked gently, taking a few steps towards her. When she didn't flinch or back away, he got within a foot of her.

She sighed. "He wanted to move in with me. And I wasn't ready for that. I'd started having some doubts about the relationship, so I told him I wasn't ready. And he got angry and he shoved me into a wall. And then he punched me." She looked down at the ground again. “Once he backed off and started apologizing I went and got my gun and told him to get out and never come back."

Her phone rang before he could reply. She pulled it out and looked at it before turning it off. "It was him, wasn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah. He's been calling every ten, fifteen minutes since he left." She lifted her head up. "Can I get some ice?"

"Sure," he said with a nod. He started to walk past her, but he stopped and pulled her into a hug instead. She didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him, and after a moment he felt his shirt begin to get damp. He rubbed her back lightly as she cried, and when she was done and let go he took a step back.

"Thanks," she said with a weak smile.

"Hey, no problem," he said. "Let me go get you that ice."

He was almost into the kitchen when she spoke up again. "I was having doubts because he wasn't you," she said quietly.

That made him stop. "Thought you'd moved on."

"I thought I had too," she said. "Guess I really haven't. Have you?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Haven't been with anyone since things ended."

"I'm sorry, Danny," she said. "I really screwed things up between us."

"Hey, I just think you got scared. It happens." He forgot about the ice and went back to her. She was looking down again and he put a finger under her chin and lifted her head up until she was looking at him again. "What do you want to do now?"

"Right now I just want to curl up and be held," she said. "I feel safe with you, and I need to feel safe right now."

"I can do that," he replied. "I can be here for you."

"Good."

He put an arm around her shoulders and lead her to the couch. "I have food coming if you're hungry."

"I kind of am," she said.

He let go of her and sat down. She sat down next to him, almost in his lap, and he turned off the TV before wrapping his arms around her. For the moment, the urge to severely maim or kill the person who hurt her subsided, and he enjoyed the feel of her against him again, just where she belonged.


End file.
